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UConn's
Dan Wilson, 22, knocked approximately 11 seconds off of his 1,500m
PR in the spring of 2000, lowering it to a nationally-competitive
3:39.71. This spring, however, he was notably absent at both NCAA
and USATF Nationals -- we caught up with him recently and found
out why.
Part
One (Conducted
in April, 2001 by Chris Lear, time-sensitive material has been cut.)
When
we caught up last summer, you had recently launched your visionary
website. One year later, the dotcom bubble has burst. It no
longer looks as if you'll get the millions of investment dollars
followed by an IPO. In short, you may actually have to get a real
job when you graduate. (Sucks, huh?) Dan, do you have the operating
capital to keep the operation afloat?
The plan all along has been to sit back and reap the benefits of
my website. Now with all of the dot-bombs things are changing. Since
I don't have a serious cash flow (fine, I live day to day) I am
going to have to get some sort of a job when I graduate. I'll probably
just get a part-time job, and why not since my running will keep
my income well into the six figures. Plus, I just made a personal
quiz and I plan to make some cash off of that.
Congrats
on joining the sub-4 mile club. Tell us a bit about your first-ever
dip under the 4-minute barrier.
I ran 3:59.14 at the New Balance meet in Boston this winter. Seriously,
it wasn't that big of a deal. After running 3:39 I pretty much considered
myself a sub-4 guy, but I just hadn't gone out and done it. I didn't
feel that my winter training was very solid, so in that regard I
was pleased.
Your
anchor leg at the 2000 Penn Relays, where you beat out Arkansas's
Sharif Karie for the Championship of America in the Distance Medley
Relay, really put you on the map. How does that race stack up in
your list of best-ever performances?
That was a huge race for me and my teammates. We were all a little
intimidated by Arkansas at the time but once the race got underway,
it was natural. Karie kind of misjudged me, and I don't blame him
because I was pretty much a scrub before that race. Plus he was
running 4:02 in high school and I broke 4:15 only once. He made
a mistake though by letting it get out so slow. We hit the 800 in
2:06 and from there it was anybody's race. I've been in so many
races like that so I just stuck to my guns.
The race changed a lot of things though. I went on a nice little
PR streak after that and lowered my 1,500 PR three or four times
and set a new one over 800 to boot. The race just gave me the confidence
to race with anyone. In that respect I'd say that it was probably
my best ever.
You
had a breakthrough year last year, dropping your 1,500 PR from 3:48
to 3:39. But, by the time you got to the Olympic Trials, you were
fried. What did you learn from last spring?
Actually, my PR was 3:50 before last spring. But yes, the season
taught me a lot. By the time the Trials rolled around I was dead.
We planned my peak around NCAAs (and I didn't even qualify) and
I ran my fastest 1,500 that day at a twilight meet in Boston. That
was the race that qualified me for the Trials. But unluckily for
me, I still had six weeks until they rolled around.
Khalid
El-Amin, UConn's fiery roundball leader a few years back, was just
released by the Chicago Bulls. How are you handling this?
The thing is, the basketball team and I have a love/hate relationship.
Basically, when they are winning, I am their biggest fan. When they
lose I hate them. Early season Khalid was playing real well, and
I was loving it. But towards the end he was scoring like 1.5 a game.
I would have cut him too. Plus, he should have stayed another year;
maybe we would have made it into the NCAA tourney (or at least to
the semi-finals of the NIT).
You've
been moonlighting the past couple summers as the Entertainment director
at the Green
Mountain Running Camp in Vermont. The highlight of the week
is undoubtedly the awards ceremony at the end of the week. Got any
favorite all-time awards? Frankly, I'm partial to the DungeonAss
award…given to the camper (or counselor) who imperils the health
of the children with consistent blasts of noxious fumes…
My
all time favorite has to be the "not enough junk in the trunk"
award. We gave it to a high school kid that was brave enough to
wear a Speedo while swimming in a lake on a pretty cold day.
On
a serious note, camp will be a different place next year without
Travis Landreth. Travis, 25, UConn's first-ever Big East Cross Country
champion, died on a training run with the Farm Team this winter.
Travis was a close friend of yours and a mentor of sorts. Tell us
a bit about what you'll remember most about Travis and how he influenced
you.
When I first showed up at UConn, Travis was the man. I originally
thought that I'd beat him that fall, but it didn't work out that
way. I quickly realized that I couldn't even train with him. He
was simply the hardest worker I'd ever met. By destroying me on
a daily basis he kind of showed me how much tougher I had to get.
Since he moved out to Cali things kind of changed. I can now hammer
runs and train much harder. I know he'd be psyched to see me running
so fast. He also showed me that the concept of underwear is silly.
Why put on a pair of shorts only to put a pair of pants over them?
But yes, camp will be different without him. His name seems to come
up almost every day around here and I know it will be the same way
in Vermont. Everyone misses him.
The
NCAA just made what could potentially be a huge blunder by passing
NCAA regional qualifying for NCAA's. The expense teams incur for
an extra meet, when many schools are already out of session, could
be enough to put programs that are already operating on a shoestring
budget further in the red. In the long run, this could lead to many
programs getting eliminated altogether. Athletically, it could enable
athletes like yourself, (Dan did not qualify for NCAA's in the 1500
last spring despite winning IC4A's) who are on the bubble and may
not have had the competitive opportunities of athletes in warm-weather
states, to compete. Your thoughts on regional qualifying…
I am a fan of the regional meets. Although there will be some problems
in certain regions that are strong in a particular event, on the
whole I think they'll work. In some areas of the country it is just
plain tough to run a qualifying time. In the Northeast it can still
be pretty cold in May and the wind is of gale force levels. Overall,
the best athletes will still qualify for NCAA's. The thing that
people have to realize is, no qualifying process is ideal. There
are positives and negatives to each of them. I am biased after last
season so I am in favor.
I
guess it's become a standard question of sorts for me, (and I'm
not sure why, since I don't know if anyone out there gets a kick
out of it besides me) and you won't be exempt: you're stuck on a
desert island, or the Seton Hall campus, pick your poison, and you
only have one movie, book, and CD to entertain you. What are your
picks?
The CD would have to be Radiohead's OK Computer. Since I've been
buying CDs (my first one ever was Doggystyle by Snoop Dogg my freshman
year of high school) I haven't found a better album from top to
bottom. Lately, I've been listening to a CD called "North Hollywood"
by a band named Slush. It's solid. Movie... wow that is so tough.
I don't know if I can pick just one. Um, I'm going to say either
Carlito's Way or Willy Wonka. Those are two movies that never seem
to get old. If Blockbuster doesn't have either one of them I'd grab
anything with Robert Deniro. For the book I'll go with Kenny Moore's
Best Efforts. I really didn't want to pick a running book,
but frankly, that's all I read. The book is awesome. There are a
bunch of different stories and none of them grow old. The Dream
Mile? Come on.
Part
Two (Conducted
in June, 2001 by Alison Wade.)
You
cut your season short this spring because it wasn't going as well
as you had hoped, now you have some collegiate eligibility remaining
-- what do you plan to do between now and then to make the most
of it?
I've
got one entire year left. I had some injury problems and missed
most of my sophmore and junior year cross country seasons. Right
now I am taking some time completely off. It's been a while since
I've had a break so I am doing zero running for a while. I'll probably
start jogging during July and then do some serious running at Green
Mountain Running Camp. The running there is awesome -- dirt roads,
mountain trails etc. with ice-cold creeks to soak in. I'll stop
before I sound like a commercial. I will be at school until then,
and a bunch of guys from the team are here so I'll have plenty of
people to run with.
Do
you have any idea why this season didn't go as well as you would
have liked?
This year we decided to change up the training a bit to try and
run well in the 5k at Penn. It didn't really go well and then it
was just a tough transition for me going back to 1,500 training.
Plus I think I may have backed off a little bit too much during
indoor for some of the bigger races. Since I didn't have the team
to think about I could pick when I wanted to run well and it may
have hurt the outdoor season a bit.
Was
the redshirting in track this year planned in advance or was it
injury-related?
This year we had seven redshirts. One was a transfer, five seniors
and a junior. We have a young team and since we will all be in school
next year we (the coaching staff and the athletes) decided it'd
be best to get ready for a big year next year.
Do
you plan on racing at all this summer?
I am done racing until cross country.
Post-collegiate
running seems to have become a big issue in the U.S. recently --
more and more groups and organizations are trying to help runners
make the transition. Have you thought about your plans for next
year -- where you might train and with whom, or is it still too
soon?
I have thought about it a ton. As of now I am just keeping my options
open. There are so many situations that are appealing, but I am
going to have to make a tough decision. I do plan on getting out
of New England. I'd like to be somewhere warmer during the winter.
Have
you earned your undergraduate degree yet or are you going to stretch
it out for another year? You're a communications major?
I'm stretching that bad boy out over another year. My last semester
will be light though and yes, I am a communications major.
You
were disappointed with your 5,000m race at Penn Relays. Would you
ever consider making your primary event anything longer or are you
going to mainly stick with the 1,500?
In high school I considered myself a two-mile guy, but as soon as
I got to college, coach (Greg) Roy moved me down to the mile. He
saw something in me that most people didn't and told me that I'd
be a great miler. I am very lucky in that regard. I think if I had
gone to just about any other school I'd be a distance guy. After
the Penn 5k I am thinking about never running another one.
Finally,
what do you attribute last year's breakthrough to?
Last year was basically the first time that I had ever been healthy
for longer than a year straight. That is the main reason that I
ran so fast. There were other minor reasons like a change in training
style, and eating healthier, but the main thing was being healthy.
I always knew I'd run fast, it was just frustrating not being able
to do so.
(June
2001)
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